


my words on your lips

by Yavemiel



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Languages and Linguistics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-24
Updated: 2017-06-24
Packaged: 2018-11-18 09:43:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11288676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yavemiel/pseuds/Yavemiel
Summary: Jyn wants to surprise Cassian for his birthday.





	my words on your lips

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RapidashPatronus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RapidashPatronus/gifts).



> A birthday present for RapidashPatronus, happy birthday lovely!!

Jyn’s palms were sweating. She could feel her stomach churning, a feeling of nauseated nervousness that she could only recall from her earliest missions with Saw. She felt a touch light-headed, and she kept her eyes carefully on the package in her hands, treating it as gently as any bomb she’d ever handled.

Finally she stopped in front of the door that her feet had carried her towards out of instinct. She paused, and took a few deep breaths, trying to calm her heart rate and steel her nerves. Then, tucking the package under one arm, she raised the other and knocked firmly.

Then she waited.

She heard footsteps on the other side of the door, the tap of fingers on a keypad and the door in front of her whooshed open, revealing a familiar and very dear face.

“Yes, what do you...Jyn?”

_**_   
_Two Months Earlier_

“Kay, I need your help.”

The droid’s face was incapable of change, but she could have sworn he looked surprised.

“Jyn Erso. Do you require a statistical analysis of a potential combat situation?”

“What? No, I ne-”

“Then I fail to see how I can be of assistance. Goodbye.”

She moved quickly to cut him off. “It’s about Cassian.”

Kay paused, then made the noise that she had come to realise represented a sigh. She would never tell him, but she found it hilarious and somewhat endearing that he would go to the trouble of synthesising such an organic response when he didn’t need to breathe.

“Fine,” he said petulantly. “What is it?”

“Cassian’s birthday is in two months time.”

“I fail to see how this information is relevant to your request for help.”

Jyn took a breath and reminded herself that punching Kay would only result in a sore hand and no help. “I want to do something special for him, to help him celebrate. Especially since we’re, you know…”

“Copulating?”

“Fark, never use that word again!” Jyn shuddered, trying to erase the memory before it had a chance to take root and cause her further emotional trauma. “I’d like to do something for him for his birthday, especially since we’re...together now.”

“And having failed to think of anything suitable by yourself, you’ve come to me for help?” There was no mistaking the smug tone, and Jyn glared at him venomously.

“No, I want you to - look, Cassian is from Fest, right?”

“Yes. He was born on Fest, though I believe he left when he was still quite young.”

“Does he have anything from there?”

Kay paused, thinking. “Cassian does not have many items of sentimental value. I do not believe I have ever seen him with anything that is uniquely Festian, although that does not mean that such an item does not exist.”

Jyn worked through that and decided to take it as a no. “Right. Well, would you be willing to help me find him something from Fest? I know the right places to look, but I need your help getting stuff back without Cassian realising.”

“I can do that,” Kay said, and she knew he was pleased to be included. “Did you have something specific in mind?”

An image flashed to Jyn’s mind immediately: Cassian, his hair falling into his face slightly, poring over an old flimsi book on one of their rare joint days off, so intent on the story that he seemed completely unaware of Jyn’s fond gaze.

“I was thinking maybe books.”

_**_   
_Present_

Cassian stared at her in confusion. “Jyn, you...you know the code for the door.”

“I know.”

“This is actually your room as well. You moved in a month ago.”

“I know that too.”

“...so why are you knocking?”

She would have laughed at him if she weren’t feeling so nervous. As it was, she looked pointedly at his arm, still blocking the entrance to the room, and said, “May I?”

He pulled his arm back as though it had been burned and continued watching in bemusement as she elbowed her way past him into the room. She turned to face him and they stared at each other in silence for a few seconds before she thrust forward the package she was holding. “Here. Um...es para ti.”

He took the package seemingly on autopilot as his eyes never left her face. If he’d been confused before, he was dumbfounded now. “How do you know that?”

She took a moment to try and compose what she wanted to say in her head before giving voice to it. “Quise que hacer algo especial para ti, y Kay me ayudió.”

_**_   
_One Month Earlier_

Jyn flicked carefully through the five flimsi books in front of her, noting the unfamiliar language with interest. To her untrained eye, they looked mostly like fictional stories, of the kind that she had seen Cassian reading before, which was perfect.

She looked up at Kay, smiling warmly, for once without a trace of sarcasm. “This is perfect, Kay, thank you.”

The droid merely inclined his head slightly, but Jyn knew he was pleased.

She went back to flicking through the books, trying to sound out the unfamiliar words, some close enough to Basic that she could make a guess, others beyond even her most creative efforts. An idea flitted into her head and she almost dismissed it, but then she paused, reconsidered.

“Kay, can you speak Festian?”

“I have the necessary language packet downloads,” he replied, “but I do not believe I have ever spoken it aloud. Cassian’s Basic is near perfect, and he has not required me to communicate with him in this fashion. Why do you ask?”

“Could you teach me?” she asked, unaccountably nervous.

Kay regarded her for a moment in silence and she felt her nerves grow. “You wish to do this because you think it will please Cassian?”

“I think he has very little to remind him of his home,” she said, “and I’d like to give him back as much of it as I can.”

She imagined that Kay’s unchanging face somehow communicated approval, although his voice betrayed nothing. “Very well. As I assume you wish to keep this secret as well, I shall message you with the time and location of our first lesson.”

_**_   
_Present_

 “Kay helped you? I didn’t even know he spoke Festian.” Cassian’s surprise was clear, but he also seemed pleased, and she was finally able to smile at him as her nerves abated.

She searched her brain for the right words but admitted defeat quickly, slipping back into Basic to explain herself. “Yeah, he said he downloaded it in case you ever needed it in the field but your Basic is ‘near-perfect’ and so he’s never needed it. But he was able to start teaching me.”

Cassian laughed, still with a touch of disbelief. “I just can’t see Kay as a teacher...what was he like?”

**

_“Hasta la llegado del animal blanco...until the...arrival of the white...animal...Kay, what the fark, in what context will that ever be useful?”_

_“It’s a code phrase,” he retorted snippily. “If Cassian ever uses it in conversation I know he needs immediate extraction.”_

_“That...how the fark would you even work that into conversation? That is the stupidest code phrase I’ve ever heard!”_

_**_

“It was...interesting at times, but he was actually surprisingly helpful,” she said, shaking off the vivid memory, and Cassian smiled at her. “What?”

“I knew the two of you would get along eventually,” he said smugly, “you just needed something to bond over. You’re actually kind of alike.”

“You take that back,” she said, horrified to her core.

He kept laughing but held up a hand in mock apology. “I’m sorry, don’t know what I was thinking. You are polar opposites.”

She sniffed, mollified, then nodded to the package. “Well, aren’t you going to open it?”

Cassian looked back down at the bundle in his hands. “It’s not that I’m not grateful,” he said slowly, “but I have to ask: why am I getting presents?”

She stared at him. “Seriously? For Force sake...feliz cumpleaños Cassian!”

He stared back at her blankly, and she doubted herself. “Did I not say it right? Happy birthday?”

He looked down at the parcel again and then back at her. “So...you learned Festian for me...and got me a present...for my birthday?”

“Um...yes?”

“How did you even know when it was?”

She swallowed. “I may have bribed one of the techs to get a look at your personnel file. Are you angry?”

He didn’t answer and for a moment she feared the worst, but then a smile spread across his face, beautiful and joyous, making his eyes crinkle at the corners in a way she rarely saw. He put the package on the bed almost reverently and crossed the room to stand in front of her, cupping her face in his hands and pressing a lingering kiss to her lips, no mean feat given the width of his smile. She froze briefly, then melted into him, sliding her arms around his waist and pressing up on tip-toe to follow his mouth as closely as she could. She’d never kissed him while he was smiling before and it was instantly her new favourite thing to do.

Eventually he pulled back for air, but only far enough to press his forehead against hers, his smile still in place. She smiled back, feeling her nerves settle completely as he tucked a wayward strand of hair behind her ear. “So...not angry then.”

It was a statement more than a question, and he shook his head, the movement brushing his hair over her forehead as he stayed pressed close to her. “The furthest thing from angry. This is...I don’t have words. I think this is the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for me.”

She felt herself blush, but the happiness bubbling up inside made it difficult to care about that. She fell silent for a few moments, basking in his obvious joy, before she suddenly remembered. “Your present! Don’t you want to open it?”

Cassian shook his head. “I’m quite comfortable here.”

She smiled, but prodded him in the ribs. “Come on, I want you to open it.”

He groaned good-naturedly, but obligingly pulled back and reached down to grab the package off the bed. He sat and inspected the wrapping carefully and began to pull it apart at the edges, causing the least amount of damage possible to the paper. Jyn began to tap her foot in a combination of nerves and impatience, resisting the urge to just grab it out of his hands and yank the paper off. She was about to do just that when she suddenly noticed him watching her through his eyelashes and she punched him (softly) in the arm as she realised “Oh kriff you Cassian Andor, you’re doing that to annoy me.”

He laughed, a full, rich sound, no undertones of self-deprecation as there too often were, and proceeded to take off the wrapping paper at a far more reasonable pace as she muttered expletives at him under her breath, too happy herself to put much weight behind the words.

He slowed again as he finally finished the unwrapping to reveal the books inside, touching the covers with delicate reverence. “You got me books? Real books?”

Jyn felt a small jolt of nervousness returning as she nodded. “Look inside.”

He glanced at her in curiosity before opening the first cover and stopping dead in astonishment as he noticed the title. “These are in Festian.”

“Yes.”

“Where...where did you find these?” His tone was one of wonderment as he flicked to the first page and started reading.

She could feel a glow of satisfaction beginning to build as she watched his obvious awe and delight. “Well, I know a couple of people who are in the business of finding things, and Kay helped me sneak them in without you noticing.”

He didn’t reply, still absorbed in the book. She sat down next to him on the bed and watched him indulgently, content to allow his happiness to bolster hers.

He looked up after a few minutes, finally registering the silence.

“Sorry,” he said with a wry grin, “it’s been so long since I read anything in Festian, it takes some concentration.”

“It’s not a problem,” she assured him, “I like watching you read. You enjoy it so much.”

“I always loved reading,” he said thoughtfully. “When I was younger it was a good way to get my Basic up to speed, and then I just loved it for the escape. I could never imagine leaving the Alliance, but it was nice to just...not think about it for a while.”

“How long has it been since you read something in Festian?” she asked.

His gaze became slightly distant, looking far into the past at a time that she had no part of.

“I don’t think I’ve read anything in Festian since I was six years old.”

She raised a brow, slightly surprised. “That long?”

He gave her a wry smile. “Basic is the language of the Alliance, and there isn’t much use for fluency in a dialect that’s primarily used on an out-of-the-way lump of ice in the Outer Rim. I can only just about read it actually, I’d only done two years of schooling when I had to leave.”

Jyn winced. “I hope I haven’t brought up bad memories then. I thought you might like some things from Fest, it never occurred to me that they might be painful.”

“Hey, no,” he said and bumped her shoulder companionably. “I love them. It’s just going to take me a little more time to read them, but it’ll be time well spent. I don’t want to forget my roots, my culture, the language that my parents spoke: these will help me remember.”

“What if,” Jyn said hesitantly, an idea forming in the back of her mind, “what if we learned together? I mean, I’ve only just been learning how to read it, and I’m sure Kay wouldn’t mind another student. Well, I mean, he probably would, but not if the student was you, and you can teach me about you cultumpf-”

She was cut off abruptly by Cassian’s lips pressed to hers, no smiles this time she noted vaguely as his presence overtook all of her senses, until it was as though everything she touched, breathed, felt was him.

He pulled back slightly, his own gaze foggy with the desire and love that she could feel written in every line of her face.

“Thank you for my presents. I love them.”

She could feel herself starting to blush again. “You’re welcome. I hope I managed to give you back a little of your home.”

He looked at her more seriously than she was expecting. “Fest is where I was born, but it’s not my home. For a long time, I thought my home was with the Rebellion, that the cause was the only family I needed, but I was wrong. You’re my home, Jyn.”

She was speechless for a moment, almost unable to cope with the swell of emotion overwhelming her as he spoke. She finally managed to choke out “Me too,” before giving up on words and returning to a form of communication she was far more comfortable with, her lips against his, long moments lost in devotion and love and home.

They broke apart only when their lungs could take no more, deep breaths so close to each other’s faces that they were breathing the same air. Cassian’s eyes were open and close to hers and he smiled at her, pressing in for another kiss before murmuring in a language that was newly familiar to her.

“Te amo Jyn.”

She smiled at him mischievously. “Yo sé.”

He poked her playfully and she giggled, trying in vain to remember the last time she’d heard herself make such a noise.

“Te amo tambíen.”

And then she pushed him back onto the bed, the books forgotten on the bedside table, and there were no words for quite some time.

_Fin_

**Author's Note:**

> My Spanish is approximately on the same level as Jyn's Festian (there's a reason Cassian only says about two words, and it's because I am not confident in my ability to write it correctly), so any mistakes can be taken as a sign of both of our levels of fluency! Also yes, K-2SO is supposed to be a walking version of Duolingo. Hope you enjoyed reading, I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments, or, if you'd like to come screech about Rebelcaptain with me, I'm also yavemiel on Tumblr! :) x


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